Listen

4

4

My chest felt heavy as my breaths struggled out short and raspy. Pulses ran through my head and blurred my vision. I rested my head onto my knees and pushed my fingers against my scalp.

Relax.

I focused my attention on my rough breathing, letting in my nose and out my mouth. The only noise in the room was the air passing through my lips. It let me slow my heartbeat, but not the racing going through my mind.

Now, think back. How did I feel today?

I dug through my mind and searched and searched for something. Symptoms of my body failing to work properly. Something like dizziness, my heart hurting, weakness, anything. But the answer I was given was scarier than my body giving up; I couldn't find anything. 

Falling back into the softness of the bed, I stared up at the ceiling that was hidden in the darkness. How? How was there nothing different? No, that can't be right. I must've missed something. I tossed over onto my stomach and rested my head on to the pillow. Trying again to look for any small changes, there were no new developments. My mind went silent before an idea sprung to the forefront, releasing me into a dreamless sleep.

*****

I have never felt so much tension in my body when I got up. I let my hand hold onto the handle of the drawer beside me. The grooves of the wood rested softly against my hand as I thought. Biting my lip, my fingers released the drawer. I fought the panic that rose in my stomach and stood up. I fell into line with Emily and left while breathing heavily through my nose.

"Aren't you excited?" Emily said, knocking her hip into my side and bringing me out of my own thoughts.

"Extremely," I chirped with a smile. We stood in the training room surrounded by everyone else our age. Today is an important day.

Today, we were going to get our first job assignment.

The room was full to the brim with giddy excitement and people couldn't keep quiet. On the walls, I could see glimpses of sheets of paper attached to the walls. There were adults milling around and were sending people off in different directions. One of which pointed me off. I gently touched Emily's elbow before throwing myself into the mitts of the crowd.

I joined the what I assumed what was the end of the line for one group of papers. But everyone was shuffling so much that I couldn't really be sure. Rocking onto the back of my heels, I let myself sink into my thoughts while I waited. The dull ache settled back into my stomach, even though I tried to block out particular thoughts.

Just ignore it, Sine.

I tried to shake it off and focus on the day ahead. The bubbling feeling masked the ache. Who will I be working with? What's my job going to be? How will it go? Oh, I hope I'm ready for this.

My eyes caught sight of the boy bouncing down the line towards me. His brown eyes sparkled with enthusiasm.

"Hey Finn," I said happily, "Well? What's your job? Who are you with?"

"Patrol," he replied in an eager voice, "No need to stand in line, we got put on the job together."

I clasped my hands together and looked at him in shock. "Really?"